where is a good place i can poke around to learn the basics of automotive painting. im thinking about investing in a gun and the other **** i need once i have the funds. not super high tech ****, just a decent setup.

i am thinking of purchasing this book, anybody read it?

http://www.amazon.com/reader/1557882...pt#reader-link

 

you know i been thinking the same thing for months now, wouldnt it be nice to learn how to paint your own car without paying thousands of dollars.

i mean how hard can it be, you sand it down, spray primer , then color coat , then clear coat.

 

there is much more to it than that

 

well there you go, you already know more than i do lol

 

just practice.... build a fiberglass enclosure, and take it from that step to bondo to paint... you learn it all doing that... you cant really read how to paint... just takes practice

 

ok that basically tells me nothing about the right equipment to look into, tried and true techniques, etc.

 

im taking autobody in college right now.

Painting steps: Sand. (Need a DA, Sand Block, Soft Hand pad)

If not removing dents
Prime .
Guide coat
wet sand (600 grit)
basecoat (wait to let it cure. depending on basecoat anywhere from 20 minutes to hours)
Clearcoat


thats as far as i got right now. i have to take painting 2 to get to the buffing and ****. Right now were mainly focusing on removing dents, filling, stud welding to remove dents, hommer on/off dolly to remove dents. Priming, guide coating and sanding to find high and low spots, prime again, guide coat again and sand, prime, wet sand, basecoat, clear.

gonna be doing my rims gloss black with a bronze flake in them. cant wait, but painting isnt hard, its just the prep and **** is a pain

as far as whats the best gun and ****, i cant tell you. Im about to purchase my own so let me know what you decide on Looking for something cheap but works well. not looking to paint ferrari's, but something that i can wetsand and buff after and itll look nice and last pretty long when taken care of properly

 

Go to a junk yard and find a car door. Practice on that for a while

 

Is there a Maaco body shop around you? Talk to the manager of a body shop and see if you can watch and learn how to paint. Thats how I did it. You may need to pay a bit though.

Another suggestion is join a forum where they specifically discuss painting and what not.

http://www.autopaintinginfo.com/

http://www.custompaintforum.com/forum/

 

thanks for those links fischer

 

Ive been working as a painter for 4 years now. The guns i own are

x3 Devilbiss Gti (base, sealer, pearl coats)
x1 Devilbiss Plus (clear coat & single stage)
x1 Devilbiss Pri (Primer / Epoxy)

I own a makita buffer, and a hutchins da and a tool box at work. Basically Ive been into cars my entire life and took a 1 year community college program to get started.

 

awesome man, that helps alot

 

I'm honestly sorry for bringing up an old thread but to the post about "how hard could it be?"!!! I worked at a collision center for about 6 months and decided it wasn't for me.

We used a lot of Sata and Iwata guns but that's all on preference and also used waterborne base coats because of the enviroment footprint and it's a **** to lay down. My company of choice to use if you do get into it would be Sikkens Akzo Nobel, leaves an awesome finish and the clear coat is rock solid. House of Colors covers nice but lays down like crap, BASF is awesome stuff and expensive but doesn't lay down very well, takes more coats!!!

Also your gonna need to invest into some sort of compounds which I know you can throw a buffer around, and that was one of my jobs at that body shop, your gonna get dirt in the paint and need to buff out.

A lot of the times the panels would just cool to touch and I would get sanding on it so it takes a lot of feel and I was worried at first about sanding a freshly painted panel with 1000-1500 grit but if I screwed up then I was fixable there...but costs monet to us.

As for prepping panels or bumpers, you need to know in bumpers you need to use some sort of flex in everything you throw on there or it will crack and with flex "Elasto-Flex" (Sikken) it takes forever to flash and usually you prep something before prim with 320 then sand out the primer with 400 then to 600 and don't break thru or it will ring up!!!

I guess that's my lousy 2cents and worthless post!!!

 

stu i just picked up a set of devilsbliss guns on ebay for like 150 the guns are good for the price..and will work for a newbie perfect

 

wow old thread and im reading my old post and i forgot i posted that. Im no professional but ill have my autobody degree by August. If you have any questions you can PM me and ill let you know the way I was tought and the way we do things by us. Alot of shops and people have there own ways of doing things. Im no pro at telling you how things lay down, as I only have spray experience in certain areas. But i learned alot.

And reading Viper's post im suprised you used flex additives in alot of things. Most plastic parts like bumpers, etc. are mounted super rigid that they rarely ever flex enough to crack paint, as most paints today have a sort of elasticity to them anyways, and flex additive changes the way it sprays alot.

 

Yea don't ask why we did either, and as for the way it sprayed yea tell me about it, flash time takes forever and you can run that **** to the ground with no problems. And you should prep a GM bumper, they put hella flex in there primer!!!